Telephony devices are a convenient means for providing information and product support to consumers. However, it is common for consumers seeking information or support to be placed on hold while their call is waiting in a queue to talk to a customer support representative. While on hold, a user of a telephony device may receive an incoming call on another line. As a result, a user of a communication device that supports call waiting and/or multiple lines is faced with the dilemma of answering the incoming call or letting it go to cover. If the incoming call is answered, the call that was placed on hold may be answered by a customer service representative while the user handles the incoming call. The customer service representative will presumably hang up if they do not receive a response from the user.
This scenario is illustrated in FIG. 1, which presents an example in which a user 100 has established a communication channel 104 with a customer service center 108. As illustrated, upon establishing the communication channel 104, the user 100 receives a response from an interactive voice response (IVR) system 112. The IVR system 112 may provide an indication to the user 100 that the user's call is being placed on hold.
Meanwhile, a third party 116 may telephone the user 100, establishing a second communication channel 120 between the communication device of the third party 116 and the communication device of the user 100. In response to a ring or other indication that the third party 116 seeks to establish a second communication channel 120, the user 100 may place the first call on hold 124 and answer the incoming call 128.
After the user has answered the call from the third party, a customer service representative 132 associated with the service center 108 may provide a greeting 136 to the user 100 on the first communication channel 104 and seek to engage in communications with the user 100. Because in the example scenario the user 100 has engaged the third party 116 on a second communication channel 120, the customer service representative 132 will receive no response. Furthermore, the user 100 will receive no indication that the customer service representative 132 is now available. Receiving no response from the user 100, the customer service representative 132 will disconnect 140 in order to handle a call from another user or to perform other tasks.
After the user 100 and third party 116 have completed their conversation and disconnected 144, the user 100 may check on the status of the call placed to the customer service center 108. Upon taking the first communication channel 104 off of hold 148, user 100 will discover that the customer service center 108 has disconnected. Accordingly, the user 100 must place another call to the customer service center 108 and presumably start from the back of the queue of users waiting for a customer service representative 132.
In order to address potentially long wait times, customer relationship management (CRM) systems have been developed that allow the user to enter their telephone number, so that the CRM system can call the user back when a customer service representative is available. However, this feature is not widely supported. In addition, it requires the service organization to incur the cost of a callback service.
A user can also address the situation by conferencing an incoming call into the original call to the customer service center. However, this can be distracting, as CRM systems often play music or announcements to callers placed on hold, which would interfere with a conversation between the user and the third party. In addition, the user may not want information that may be provided from the customer service center to be heard by the third party caller.
Although a user can monitor the communication channel through a speaker phone to determine whether a customer service representative is available, this merely allows the user to put the handset down. However, it does not provide any notification of the availability of a customer service representative if the user has answered an incoming call while a call to the CRM system is on hold. Also, monitoring a call requires that the user listen closely enough to determine whether a customer service representative has answered the call.